Whole-Grain Road Food

This was a summer I did not stand still. Or, more accurately, I was either sitting on the deck/beach/lakeside or traveling down the long and winding roadways leading to and from Wallowa County.

Travel is good. Travel is summer…and family and fun destinations–and in my case a book tour.

Travel is hard for eating, for staying “on your feed.” I was in the car so very much, I tended to live on Arnold Palmers in 60-ounce cups from gas stations.

Then, I remembered the wrap from our newest cafe in Joseph, Red Horse Coffee. And I am telling you this as someone who does not favor wraps in general.

I wish that this wrap was my idea. It’s so simple, really, and yet transcendent: quinoa, black beans, shedded carrots, shredded (raw) beets, diced tomato, hummus and cilantro pesto wrapped in a tortilla and toasted in a panini press.

The owners call is the Veggie Breakfast Burrito Panini, but I want it all the time.

You see, it’s the combination of yummy-healthy ingredients + the panini technique for a just-crispy wrap that makes this so addictive.

I crave it at least once a week. And while I know it’s easily made, it’s so pleasurable to walk the 2 blocks from my house to Red Horse and have Kathy make it for me.

If I don’t have to get on the road too early, I will place my order and take a table in the sun, chatting with all the other regulars who can’t stay away from here either. I’ll eat half of the wrap and take the rest to go. I’ll eat it somewhere between The Dalles and Hood River 4 hours later and it gets me all the way to Portland without a single hunger pang.

So, one wrap is all you need for every 6-hour road trip. See? Road food problem solved.

If you can make it to Joseph on one of your travels now or in the future, you can arrive at Red Horse with your order already downloaded and ready to hand across the counter. You can also see the full ingredients list here.

Even if I can’t bring myselft to make this at home, you absolutely should. And if you don’t have a panini press, just toast in in a cast-iron skillet until lightly browned.

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About Rural Eating

I'm Lynne Curry and Rural Eating is my blog based on my life in eastern Oregon. I operate an old tavern, a small garden, a big freezer, and I feed my family of four using as few dishes as possible. I love to share stories of food excursions, recipes and reflections--as if you were sitting around my big farm table in my retro yellow kitchen. Some of these off-the-cuff thoughts turn into articles for my day job as a freelance food journalist and cookbook author. Here, have a taste...

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About Lynne Curry

A longtime freelance food writer and private chef, I opened the first farm-to-table tavern in eastern Oregon in June 2014 with two business partners. Drawing on my experiences using homegrown and whole foods—sometimes wild—I craft menus as well as stories of people, place and culture in the rural West. I write for Zester Daily and am the author of the Pure Beef cookbook and the blog Rural Eating.